Bernal: Is La Villita going to be part of the Decade of Downtown or not?

“La Monas” giant puppets make their way to a tamalada in 2010 at La Villita.

It’s going to take a good shake to snap La Villita out of its slumber. That’s the approach being adopted by the city’s Department of Culture and Creative Development, as it prepares to reinvent the retail cluster in the next two years.

For District 1 Councilman Diego Bernal, it’s about getting locals to return to the historic neighborhood.

“The feeling is that a lot of locals don’t spend enough time at La Villita and part of this is trying to figure out why,” Bernal said in an interview last week.

Under the DCCD’s plan, La Villita shop owners, some who have operated there for decades, would have to reapply for their leases without any guarantee of staying. Most of the shop owners have interpreted the strategy as a sign of disrespect. Click here for the previous story with those comments.

Bernal disagrees.

“The idea that they are entitled to a lifetime of occupancy is unrealistic,” Bernal said. “The idea that they have to re-up is not exactly earth-shattering.”

Bernal also admitted that the city has not done its part in recent years to better market and light La Villita.

Jerome Stowe, owner of the shop Casa Manos Alegres, told Bernal that there are signs that point people in La Villita’s direction, but if you’re a tourist, you probably don’t know that it’s a series of shops.

They also may not know of La Villita’s rich history. It’s the oldest neighborhood in San Antonio. According to Express-News archives, La Villita was inhabited by squatters and farm workers in the 1700s, during the time the Alamo was a mission. In the 1800s, European settlers built the houses shop owners currently operate from. The area had become a slum, until Mayor Maury Maverick’s “Villita Ordinance” of 1939 jarred it from depravity.

Currently, the city collects $31,800 a month from La Villita tenants. They pay rent as well as storage and promotions fees. Tenants in the interior of La Villita pay 96 cents per square foot, while tenants on the edges pay $1.08 per square foot. Copper gallery Casa Clasal pays $1.49 per square foot as a result of its own RFP process. And the city also collects from the Little Church.

The rental rates are expected to increase for the 2013-14 fiscal year.

In the fall, the DCCD is scheduled to issue a request for proposal, which is supposed to articulate the kind of direction the city wants to take La Villita. For now, details are scarce on exactly what the city would like to see there.

But, Bernal said the “vast majority” of shop owners will remain at La Villita.

Most everyone agrees that what La Villita is lacking most is an anchor restaurant.

“We want to see something that’s local and that offers an S.A. flavor,” Bernal said.

Felix Padron, director of DCCD, said in a recent interview that other improvements could be the introduction of WiFi, more places for people to sit, and converting the Cos House, behind the the Arneson River Theatre, into a visitors center. General Martin Cos was the brother-in-law of Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna.

For Bernal, something needs to be done to get La Villita moving forward along with some of the other major projects like the redevelopment of HemisFair Park across the street.

“Is La Villita going to be part of the Decade of Downtown or not?,” Bernal said.

Painter Debra Benditz is one of the few La Villita tenants who embraces the change.

“I can tell you that after being here for two years, I feel that it’s a good time to embrace the changes, particularly with everything happening in the area,” the owner of Debra Benditz Art Studios said.

“I’m of the belief that change can be good and that without it, it’s the architect of decay.”

“If everything was easy everybody would be doing it,” said Sifuentes, who is president of the La Villita Tenants Association. “We would be living in this perfect world where all you did was think about a beer and you’d have it in your hand.

“There’s an old guard (at La Villita) who don’t want that because they are going to have to change. They’re going to have to evolve.”